New Technology, Multi-Focus Implants, can restore cataract-ridden eye sight

Each year in the United States, more than 2.5 million people have cataract surgery.

A cataract is a clouding of the clear lens in the eye. As people age, the lens doesn’t change shape as readily or grows cloudy and more yellow.

In a healthy eye, light passes through the transparent lens to the retina, which transforms the light into nerve signals that are sent to the brain. As a cataract develops, the image the retina sends to the brain becomes cloudy, impairing vision.  

“Eventually, it gets cloudy or yellow enough where it starts to impair the quality of someone’s vision,” Dr. Colman R. Kraff, MD, a top rated ophthalmologist and Cataract Surgeon in Chicago at the Kraff Eye Institute, said. “When this happens, we do a cataract operation, remove the lens and replace it with an artificial one. By replacing it, we can restore someone’s natural vision.”

Cataracts typically develop slowly and don’t disturb eyesight or cause pain in their early stages. However, as the clouding progresses, the cataract eventually interferes with vision.  

With cataract surgery, Dr. Kraff can also implant the artificial lens to effect other improvements, including establishing monovision for the cataract patient, which is similar to what can be achieved with LASIK surgery. This involves setting one eye for distance and the other for reading, thereby diminishing the need for reading glasses as a patients grows older.

“If a patient doesn’t want them, we can make both eyes regular distance and give them reading glasses,” Dr. Kraff said.  

A new option that Kraff sees much promise in is multi-focus, or pseudo accommodative, implants.

Multifocal lens implants correct both your distance vision and your presbyopia after cataract surgery," Dr. Kraff said. "For the vast majority of patients, having a multifocal lens implant means that you will be able to see at a distance and up close without being dependent on glasses. So, patients choosing to have a multifocal lens implant will likely find that they can drive, watch television, read or do crafts without glasses.

“The challenge is that not all cataract patients qualify, but if we carefully evaluate patients and only treat people who we feel are clinically suitable for this, patients do extremely well,” Dr. Kraff said. “It doesn’t mean 100 percent don’t need reading glasses, but they can very often read a newspaper or a menu, so it restores quality vision.”

Kraff said that multifocal lenses will continue to improve with 3rd and 4th generation lenses expected to be approved by the FDA in the next 12 to 24 months.

Dr. Colman Kraff MD of Kraff Eye Institute was selected in 2010 by TopTierMD as a Chicago Top Doctor - He was named a Best Chicago Ophthalmologist specializing in Refractive Surgery, Cataract Surgery and Implantable Collamer Lense (ICL) Procedures.